Google & yahoo rated for having the most relevent and current site if you check acting & performing or performing auditions see where Dare 2 Audition is and rated no 1 by industry professionals and other actors.   We have lots of free services we just have lots more services than other sites. No agent commission charged. 

Hava-chat

Dare2Audition

www.dare2audition.com.au

Acting & Audition Resources Management

Yes but the formatting on this site turn people off as it takes so long for each page to load and so many of the posts are old news.  You have only written this as we are competition. Competition is healthy it keeps you providing a good service and aiming higher. 

Hava-chat

Dare2Audition

www.dare2audition.com.au

Acting & Audition Resources Management

You should check out the work we have on the site before you make unfair ill informed comments, I am a member here so I know what is on offer, you do not know what is on offer at Dare 2 Audition and therefore are not in a position to know what is provided for our private members. 

Dare 2 Audition provides paid work not just community theatre, is not self run, we do not rely on guests adding content & auditions, we add all content to the site have professional writers & interviewers & we add all auditions so as to quality control the casting board. This is why there is no old news, we are totally current.

This is why we are rated no 1 for acting & performing & performing auditions with google. Who cares who links to your site, its about who is using the site, do a search with google not the who links to me site, as this isnt accurate we are on many more industry sites.  We provide auditions, film & theatre reviews which we pay writers for, admission in our talent search system, a web presence, sample contacts, industry awards, career advice, forum use to interact with other industry professional and new to the industry members, access to our database of agents, acting schools, govenment sites & industry associations. Promotion of any production our members are involved in. This is all supplied free of charge.

We have only had 1 paid member this year that has not renewed their membership so if actors that are private paying members of our site are not happy surely they wouldnt renew their membership. There is no tricks they can join for 3 months for $27 to see if the site is a benefit and our records tell us that Dare 2 Audition is  instrumental for the freelance performers we assist and are valued members. Whether they are paid members or not is irrelevent.

What is not free are services that cost Dare 2 Audition to provide and are time consuming, we are online 6 hours a day to assist members with audition applications.

This level of membership are put up for agent & director provided private casting, can send their audition applications from the site. No commission or fee charged on work gained. 

If members want new headshots we negotiate a discount of $50-$100 for them.

If members want to do classes with a particular school we attempt to negotiate a discount for them for their training we have a large list of schools that we have negotiated a 15-20% discount at.

If members want to have a show reel done we negotiate a discount for them, and host their show reel on the site. this level of membership are able to have a gallery of images which we edit and upload for them.

We sms or phone urgent castings to this level of membership

This level of membership are also included in a special area in the site where they can promote themselves when looking for a agent, agents can access this area when looking for new talent to represent. 

We negotiate discounts at theatres for tickets as well as give away tickets, 6-10 double passes a month. Give away free private membership for contributing to the site. Negotiate discounts for acting & audition books as well as programs. Rather than earn a commission for all of the above we pass the discount on to our members. So the small yearly fee that private subscribers pay is recouped by one discount. So please do your homework before you put us in the same category as other online casting directories or sites that are unethical.  We have agents, directors, casting directors contacting us regularly asking how they can get involved in the site.

Dare 2 Audition is unique, there is no other site to compare us to that provides what we do, and although we are only a new site having launched in October 2006, already has the need for this new format releasing in July,  and is the 1st phase of a 2 year project, once complete will link all acting sites, agents, theatres, directors, casting directories, crew & government sites in an easy to use film, theatre & TV industry portal.

ALL DEDICATED COMMITTED PROFESSIONAL ACTORS WELCOME 

Hava-chat

Dare2Audition

www.dare2audition.com.au

Acting & Audition Resources Management

 Grant wrote: "This site has been providing free services for more than nine
years. Thankfully whether it continues or closes down doesn't rest on
the whim of any single individual but rather it rests on the continuing
contributions made by the hundreds of companies and individuals that
have built it."

We need to compare like with like here.  There are three types of online service for actors: the free sites such as Theatre Australia & TheatreLink.  Those that provide a structured service, and charge a fee such as Dare to Audition [$90pa] and Quiet on Set [$80pa] and casting pools such as ECaster, which charge a whole lot more [$180pa + $15 profile establishment].  We are talking about different niches here and "My site's better than your site" arguments - even if implied - are a bit puerile.  D2A provides structured and managed auditions information - and this promises to be better in the new site - whereas the auditions information here is a little more chaotic because auditions posts are not always located by those posting notices in the correct forum.

Helen Edwards was challenged for claiming D2A as "Continually rated the no.1 Acting & Audition Resources Management Site online."  Grant asked: "Rated no.1 by whom"? [I'll ignore the anonymous postings].  She gave the answer.  This wasn't good enough for some: an irrelevant discussion proceeded on the basis of this ranking method is better than yours.  BTW, her site is not the only one that makes such claims.  Quiet on Set describes itself as "Australia's Leading Online Resource for Actors".  That's as may be, and I would the first to challenge false advertising and I make no comment on that.  But on one measure [Google rankings] Helen Edwards was entitled to make the claim.  Picking up what someone on this thread said, however, the real measure is the satisfaction of the paid subscribers

Grant advised, "think twice and thrice before paying for membership to any online service."  That is sage advice.  And foremost in all our minds are the rip-off "agents" who illegally charge emerging actors hundreds of dollars to get on their books, or the "agents" who demand of those they take on that they register with ECaster (so, they take the - often inflated - commission and leave the actor and ECaster to do the work for them).  But D2A doesn't charge beyond the subscription fee.  And D2A is busy building up its producer - director - actor nexus.

The bulk of the membership in D2A, I would guess, is made up of emerging actors.  Some do have agents, get acting work,  and still subscribe for the services.  So, D2A must be doing something right.  Such services are useful for freelance actors, yet to establish a reputation in the industry.  Putting a personal cast on this: I have been offered work or auditions on the internet only when I have paid for it (a short stint on Star Now - I no longer subscribe: it was not money well spent), or through D2A, or through my agent.

The internet resources for actors can either be proactive - and in my experience that is what D2A is - or static (for example, TheatreLink).  These are different sorts of services, not criticisms.  My own website is static in the same sense: it provides organised details of my acting "career", headshots and more.  I have to get people in the industry to go there if I am to get any return for putting it up. Theatre Australia provides a different sort of service again.

D2A provides services on a subscriber basis that could not be provided by Theatre Australia as a free service unless it was cashed up by a wealthy philanthropist.  I suspect that while the D2A owners are building a business - and I have no ideological difficulty with that [I do with the rip-off merchants] - and providing a worthwhile service for the fee, they are investing a lot of their time for little financial return.

Young, emerging actors will use the internet for a variety of purposes and the kind of services provided by D2A and Theatre Australia are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. 

Jim

The anonymous poster - who could be anyone with a vested interest - wrote: "Put in Australian theatre - your site didn't come up in the first five pages. Put in 'Australian theatre auditions', and your site is all the way at the bottom of the first page."

Anyone can play those games: D2A does not designate itself as specifically a theatre audition site, although there is a theatre component. Therefore to include "theatre" in a phrase search is prejudicial, since D2A doesn't emphasise theatre above screen in its name or elsewhere. If you do an advanced word search on Google , as follows - Australia performer auditions site:.au - D2A is the first entry. On the first page.

Jim

And to press home the point: an advanced Google search using another generic grouping of words - Australia actor auditions site:.au - brings D2A up second on the first page

Jim

Most people know my feelings on rip off sites...but Dare2Audition is not one of them. They offer a fantastic service and have always been helpful for my projects and for work.

Im glad Jim stood up for them...I tried to the other day but the server crashed and my comments were lost.

Every site will try to attract your attention...even the ITA website, and there is nothing wrong with that. We are in the entertainment BUSINESS and that is what it is, a Business.

I will reiterate what Grant said about doing your homework before you hand over any money. It is basic logic and can save you alot of grief...but I have had no problems with D2A

Keep Smiling

David Green
DRAGON FILMS

www.davidgreenenterprises.com

That's not quite true: "information and statistics garnered on the internet is completely unreliable, and more to the point, worthless". The point I was making is that you can get different results from asking different questions. In that sense it is no different from any other set of statistics ("Lies, damn lies and statistics"!). I used the same technique as the anonymous poster to get different sets of results from his/hers/its.

But, I think my approach had validity and anon's did not because it took account of the real situation. D2A is not predominantly a theatre site. So valid search questions would not be about D2A's ranking as a theatre site. It is a site for performers and actors - of all sorts: film, television, as well as theatre. And, as I also said, the most important measure of a service is what the customers think. So, it's a qualitative as well as a quantitative issue.

There have been some lessons for everyone in this thread. And, if you were the admin of a group and so heavy handed, I don't think I would want to bother with it!

To save you the time: I've no doubt your riposte would be that you wouldn't want me. But, if you took your argument to its logical conclusion: there is no point in having discussions at all on the net. So, why are you putting in your view here at all?

While there are some absolutely rubbishy forums, there are also useful forums that make a general contribution to various communities of scholars, writers, actors, philosophers, adherents to various causes, carers, people suffering from various health conditions, political thinkers, human rights advocates, special interest groups, etc., etc..

And if anyone is offended by one or another, they don't have to subscribe; they don't have to open the site; they don't have to get their guts in a knot; and if they give no credence to everything discussed on the net they can throw away their modem (preferably recycled), and get their jollies somewhere else.

Jim